Powabyke SLA Charger

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Hi I have an old Powabyke with SLA batteries (yes I know ). The charger blew up a while ago and I bought the cheapest one on eBay but I am not sure it is working properly. The range of the bike is rather poor. It barely manages 6 miles. It is possible the batteries have just worn out.
The bike has 3 x CSB EVH12150 12V 15Ah. The full charge voltage from the batteries is 40.2V and the output from the charger when disconnected is 41.6V. I haven't measured the actual voltage when charging but I suppose I could break into the link somewhere.
According to the datasheet the minimum charging voltage is 14.4V per battery i.e. 43.2V so it seems a bit low.
https://www.avacom.cz/Datasheety/CSB/PBCS-12V015-F2AD.pdf

I also have a Powabyke charger for the Li-ion battery, do you think it would work?

 

[Andy-Mat]

Hi I have an old Powabyke with SLA batteries (yes I know ). The charger blew up a while ago and I bought the cheapest one on eBay but I am not sure it is working properly. The range of the bike is rather poor. It barely manages 6 miles. It is possible the batteries have just worn out.
The bike has 3 x CSB EVH12150 12V 15Ah. The full charge voltage from the batteries is 40.2V and the output from the charger when disconnected is 41.6V. I haven't measured the actual voltage when charging but I suppose I could break into the link somewhere.
According to the datasheet the minimum charging voltage is 14.4V per battery i.e. 43.2V so it seems a bit low.
https://www.avacom.cz/Datasheety/CSB/PBCS-12V015-F2AD.pdf

I also have a Powabyke charger for the Li-ion battery, do you think it would work?

Different battery chemistries need different chargers. Never experiment, it could cost you dearly.
Do not try and use the Li-ion charger on a SLA or LA battery.
The charger that you need is one for LA batteries, though it appears that it is to charge all three in series, which is generally considered to be "unhealthy" for the batteries. Can you post charger details?
If I was charging, I would have a 12 volt charger, with an automatic cut off, to stop overcharging. and connect it to each battery singly, for best battery life, or buy 3 chargers.....

On my 12 volt caravan battery, I only charged to 70% for normal usage and the battery was about 15 years old when I sold the caravan, battery still working fine, though the actual capacity (untested) was probably less than it was when new, but the difference was hardly noticeable.

You might read this through for SLA and LA Batteries:-

https://www.scubaengineer.com/documents/lead_acid_battery_charging_graphs.pdf

Best wishes for a happy new year
Andy

 

[vfr400]

The batteries are knackerd. Simples!

 

[WheezyRider]

As vfr says, the batteries are probably on their last legs. Even if they give a decent voltage when fully charged, it's no indication of the amount of capacity they have left. If they are more than a few years old, have not been looked after (ie charged up regularly), then getting 6 miles is good going. If it's like my Powabyke was originally, it's a heavy bike with heavy lead batteries coupled to a noisy, inefficient and heavy brushed motor. Even with a decent lithium pack, getting 20 miles out of it is good going.

The best thing to do is replace the battery with a good sized lithium pack, replace the motor with a modern brushless motor, add a new controller and try and strip it of as much steel as possible. Plus, put some decent tyres on it!

I still have the original charger, so I could test the voltage output from that for you if that would help?

 

[Nealh]

Batteries have had it, time to convert to Li.
SLA is very old hat and really disen' t like to be discharged for regular power use.

 

[WheezyRider]

My old Powabyke charger is putting out 47.5 V Open circuit.

 

[Jeframp]

Batteries have had it, time to convert to Li.
SLA is very old hat and really disen' t like to be discharged for regular power use.

Tbh the deep cycle sla they use can do a good 300 cycles or something. It's not as good as LI in terms of cycles but its cheap to replace. You can get 3 new sla cells for like 50-80. I was quoted 120-400 for my old li bike and the cells are all individual you can't just swap them out. With sla they unclip. I think I'll just by new 15ah sla ones when mine go. It's better than like having to buy a new charger and fit a new lithium one for several hundred. They are light but bad for the environment too. Sla is recyclable easily . I considered sla but why I don't need a light bike and they do lose capacity quicker potentially If your only using sla down to half and charging back up like me I imagine they'll degrade slow. Li every discharge even half counts doesn't it. Think how long car batteries last compared to laptop and phone ones. If you regularly run it flat no get lion. Thing is the 3 batteries do like 30 odd miles brand new hard to run flat and that's only the 12 ah ones the 15ah probably do about 40 .I've got down to nearly 30% as the middle charge light was flickering and going off that's the lowest and I'd done about 15-20 odd miles. The batteries must be 18 months or two years. I'll change them in about 6 months but they'll still have some life left I'm just picky. Sla is what the elderly have used for decades to get to bingo or buy a paper in the scooters use a third of the power and pop it straight on charge . It's great to commute if your not running it flat.

 

[Nealh]

Ok if you like carrying around a dead weight all the time, but weight adds to range demise and we know SLA give out poor performance compared to lithium.
It's horses for courses an dif one is happy with their usage then it is a personal choice.
For ebike use it is veyr old low tech but does stil work, one has to weight up what one want's out of them.

 

[Jeframp]

Ok if you like carrying around a dead weight all the time, but weight adds to range demise and we know SLA give out poor performance compared to lithium.
It's horses for courses an dif one is happy with their usage then it is a personal choice.
For ebike use it is veyr old low tech but does stil work, one has to weight up what one want's out of them.

Yh I mean I mainly like them because they are cheap.